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“Father was supposed to be missing and dead!”
“Don’t kill me on your own. Well, I lost, but the Demon Lord young lady told me to do what I wanted, so I became her subordinate. Look at this weapon and armor, isn’t it cool?”
Stunned by his father’s attitude, which was so selfish and lighthearted, Abel’s hand gripped tightly and began to tremble slightly.
“…What are you doing, Father?”
“An?”
“I have always respected your strength even when it was inappropriate, but you are too random and too stupid! That’s why mother died after so many hardships!”
Bert scratches his cheek with a troubled face at his son’s angry words that made him spit blood.
“Ah~, that’s a lie.”
“…What?”
“I didn’t mention it when you were young, but I heard that she had a crush on a young minstrel, paid him a tribute, eloped and went to another country.”
“No way…”
Abel’s gaze swept from side to side as he vaguely wondered if his mother’s grave, which he had certainly thought was strange and nowhere to be found, was in the grave of a relative of her family.
“I didn’t think you still believed the stories from when you were a child…. I thought one of the servants had already informed you…”
“A, any, anyway, that’s not relevant! Bert, the traitor has dishonored the Kingdom of Caenista and our Order! You are no longer my father, and in the name of justice, you will be destroyed!”
Bert’s eyes narrowed silently as Abel stepped forward with his greatsword ready to ward off the lukewarm stares from the knight’s men.
“Justice…? Do you really think this is justice?”
“Of course! For the sake of the Caenista Kingdom, for the honor of the Order, it is my mission to slaughter the evil demon tribe! And then…”
Abel’s eyes, which had been filled with anger, became gentle, as if gazing into the distance.
“For the sake of the kind-hearted Beloved Child Alice, I have decided to fight, no matter who the enemy is.”
Bert, the father’s, eyes softened slightly at the sight of his son Abel.
“Beloved Child…. Come to think of it, you’ve been concerned about that girl for a long time. Why do you swing your sword for her?”
“That’s obvious.”
Abel declares with a refreshingly fresh smile.
“Because her chest is flat.”
Silence enveloped the battlefield, as if people were afraid to even breathe.
While enemies and allies alike were motionless as statues with their mouths agape, one manticore that was relatively close by slowly opened its eyes with a somber expression and dexterously rubbed its brow with its beastly forelegs.
“Alice is wonderful. I used to love little girls, thinking that such women could only be young children, but Alice has shown me how wonderful human potential can be, even as a young woman nearing adulthood!”
Abel, without regard to the surrounding atmosphere, continued his confession like a stage actor…
“Just stare at it from afar. Compared to that great cliff, an ugly lump of fat like Flare, gah!
Abel, who was still speaking, was blown away, and everyone around him followed with an open mouth stare. Bert chased Abel down and mounted him, punching him in the face and liver area with his gauntlet.
“Ha ha ha. I see.”
*Gokin, *gofu, *gakkun, *bokkun!
“Nah, old man, this…ah, gufu!”
“Ah-ha-ha. You don’t have to open your mouth anymore!”
Bert continued to beat Abel with an almost terrifying smile, as if he were playing a percussion instrument in a steady rhythm.
Gleaming blood, scattered front teeth. After a few minutes of this, when Abel’s voice was no longer heard, and he stopped twitching, Bert was stopped in his place by Boris and the other demons, who had finally come to their senses, and were pinning him down with their wings.